Former Model, MBA Grad Asks Google to Expose Cyberbullies on YouTube

Aug. 18, 2010 — -- An actress and model turned MBA is going to court to expose cyberbullies who posted unauthorized videos of her on YouTube and called her a "whore."

In a legal document filed Monday with the New York State Supreme Court, Carla Franklin, 34, a business consultant and Columbia Business School graduate, seeks Google's help to identify people who posted defamatory comments on a YouTube channel dedicated to her that started appearing online in 2009.

Franklin's petition asks the court to force Google, which owns YouTube, to turn over information that would help identify the anonymous troublemakers.

Last year, as Franklin was hunting for a job, one or more people created a YouTube account displaying clips of Franklin in an independent film, said her attorney David Fish. Simultaneously, a YouTube user named "greyspector09" commented on a Columbia Business School YouTube video featuring Franklin and wrote "whore" next to clips of Franklin.

The YouTube channel and the comments have been removed from the Web, but the court documents allege that the posts and comments "impute a lack of chastity" and the video damaged her business prospects and personal relationships.

"All of this is sort of happening at the same time when she's in graduate business school looking to get a job and she's hearing from friends and colleagues, 'what's going on,'" Fish said. "It can be kind of scary -- why is somebody doing this? Is it going to escalate?"

"[Franklin's] not looking for a dime," said Fish. "She's angry, obviously, and hurt, and she wants this person to be exposed. And she kind of wants to send a message that, going forward, if you're going to post something about somebody be sure it's true and we'll know who you are."

Google spokesman Brian Richardson said the company doesn't talk about specific cases to protect its users.

"When we receive a subpoena or court order, we check to see if it meets both the letter and the spirit of the law before complying. And if doesn't we can object or ask that the request is narrowed," he said. "We have a track record of advocating on behalf of our users."